Mutual Collapse
by Ariana Aislinn
Summary: A Brigadoon story, based on the events of episode 17. Marin returns from Submaton Color to find nothing is the same...
1. Chapter 1

**_Mutual Collapse_**  
by Ariana Aislinn  
_Chapter 1_

__

Disclaimer: The anime Brigadoon is the property of Bandai and Sunrise. All characters are used only for fun and not for profit.

Author's Note: This is a sort of "fill in the blanks" story. It's a rewriting of episode 17 that follows the plot exactly as it is in the anime, but it has a lot of added material—a look at Marin's thoughts, scenes we don't see in the anime, her reactions to things, etc. There are pretty major spoilers here, so if you haven't see as far as episode 17, be warned. I really enjoyed writing this; I hope you enjoy reading it as much. And yes, I do have at least one other Brigadoon story in the works that I haven't yet posted; I'm waiting for my beta reader to get back to me. I may write more Brigadoon fanfics in the future, maybe after I finally get a hold of the 6th DVD and finish the series. ^_^

Marin shivered, wrapping her makeshift cloak of ragged brown canvas more tightly around herself. So much of Submaton Color had been quite warm, and the wraparound dress she'd made from a large leaf had been perfectly adequate there…but here, in the cold onset of a Tokyo winter, a flimsy leaf, a few old newspapers wrapped around her legs, and a dirty canvas tarp weren't nearly enough. What month had it been when she left, anyway? And just how long had she been in Submaton Color?

No use thinking about it, though; she wasn't there anymore, and dwelling on it would only remind her of what she no longer had. Not only were the languidly paradisiacal days in that parallel world gone, but she had returned home to find the tenement burned and all her friends and family gone, as well.

_This won't do at all!_ Marin shook her head. She had to concentrate on what came next, not all the things that were troubling her. She smiled weakly, glancing out at the snowflakes that had just begun to fall. "I never thought I'd be sleeping under a bridge," she said aloud. "Well…it's cold, but I'll be warm enough to get some rest. And then maybe I can find out what happened to the tenement, and where everyone has gone…eh?" She cocked her head, listening. She thought she'd heard something, perhaps footsteps on the grass nearby, but they'd stopped now.

Something tickled in the back of her mind, perhaps some sort of intuition warning her, and she rolled out of the way just as a glinting knife stabbed down, right where her head had been. Marin rolled into a crouch, looking up with wide eyes to see a vaguely familiar face. It was the woman who had attacked her after the World Expo. She seemed to have fared no better than Marin; the woman's skin was pallid and gray, her hair stringy and dirty, her dress in tatters, and her feet bare. She looked much the same as the first time Marin had seen her—certainly no better.

"So, you're back! You thought you could escape and leave the rest of us to die. But it didn't work, did it? You went to stop all this…but you didn't. All this happened because of you, and you're the one who should have stopped it—and you _didn't!_" The woman lunged, panting hysterically as she lashed out at Marin with the knife.

"I tried!" Marin dodged clumsily, stumbling and almost falling. She wanted to explain, but fear slowed her thinking so she could not figure out what to say, or how to say it. How could she explain that everything that had happened up till now was all a mistake? This woman had originally attacked Marin because her own daughter had died in the fiasco at the Expo, when monomakia, the great biological monsters of the other world, had come to try to kill Marin. The woman blamed the girl for her daughter's death. And who was to say she was wrong, really? After all, if Marin had never gone to the Expo, the monomakia would not have come, and the other little girl, little Kaori, would not have died.

On the other hand…what could Marin have done? She had never asked the monomakia to chase her, and she had done what little she could to try to stop the destruction. She had actually gone so far as to journey to Brigadoon, the mysterious, golden maze of another world that had appeared so many months before, washed in rippling rainbows and phasing in and out of visibility in the blue spring sky. That was the world from which the monomakia had come, and when representatives from the United States had asked her to board the Apollo 11 flight to try to reach Brigadoon, she had agreed. Since the strange, biological/mechanical monsters were after her, perhaps she could serve as an ambassador and somehow find out what they wanted.

But it had all gone wrong. The mission was a complete failure, and Marin had not turned out to be the one the monomakia had wanted after all. It was all some colossal, ironic mistake, and Marin was just an all-too-ordinary, thirteen-year-old girl.

But how could she explain that to this woman who was trying to kill her, blaming her for all the death and destruction caused by the monomakia and the threatening proximity of that strange world in the sky? Breathing heavily now, Marin continued to try to dodge. The knife came down again, and she stumbled backwards, falling on the grass. Snapping her hands out in a panic, she barely managed to grasp the handle of the knife, holding it back with her meager strength.

"I didn't know you'd gone, at first." The woman almost grinned, her eyes crazed and frightening. "I've been waiting for you. I set fire to your house—but you weren't there! Now you're back, and you'll pay for what happened to my Kaori!" 

Marin gasped for breath. "It was _you_ that burned down the tenement? Where is everyone that was there? What happened to them?!"

The woman grinned, pressing the knife closer. "Who cares? Maybe they're all dead! Everyone is dead, but you're alive, and it's _all your fault!_"

Marin bit back a sob. "What do you expect me to _do?_"

"Die!!" She lunged again.

Just then a low hum filled the air, and both Marin and her attacker looked up, their struggle momentarily halted. Concentric circles rippled in the gray, clouded sky, as on the surface of a still pond. They both threw themselves aside, then scrambled to their feet and ran. Months may have passed since Marin had left her world for Brigadoon, but she remembered what that signaled.

Seconds later, muddy earth and rubble poured from the sky like sand from an hourglass, rushing down to bury the spot where Marin and the woman had been grappling with each other. Marin ran with her head down, trying to outdistance it, but the edge of the falling mass caught her. Dirt and pebbles pelted her, stinging her bare arms. She coughed as she breathed in the dust that surrounded her, stumbling. And then something hit her—she wasn't sure what, but possibly a large piece of stone. Pain exploded in her head, and bright lights flashed in front of her eyes. She sprawled on her hands and knees, blinking dizzily.

There was no time to recover, however. Marin could hear her attacker's shouts, and she knew the woman had gotten clear of the falling rock and earth. Forcing herself to her feet, Marin shook her head in an effort to clear it and stumbled off in a limping run, panting and bordering on panic.

The woman's shouts grew fainter, and after she had run several blocks, Marin slowed, gulping in breaths of air and choking back sobs of fear. She swallowed hard, trying to calm herself as she walked. She'd escaped her attacker and the mutual collapse, and she was safe, for the moment.

Safe—nothing in Tokyo was safe anymore. She'd come home from Brigadoon and the side trip to Submaton Color confused, unsure of what role she had to play in all this or whether she really mattered or could do anything to help at all. The only thing she'd wanted was to go home to her family, all the residents of the tenement…but no one was there. Somewhere inside of her was a place that feared they were all dead, perhaps killed in the fire, or in the mutual collapse. What would she do if they were gone? She choked back another sob. None of them were her blood relatives, but they might as well be, for she loved them as if they were. Uncle Tadashi, Jun, Uncle Onando, Grandpa Shuta, Mike, and the three aunties who ran the candy shop…all of them were very nearly as much her family as Grandpa Gen and Grandma Moto had been.

The pain of losing her beloved grandparents was all too fresh. Grandma Moto had died quietly and peacefully, just after that fateful day at the Expo, when the danger was past and Marin had thought they were safe. Grandpa Gen had died only the year before, and although she knew that her grandparents had been old, it was not fair to have to lose both of them in so short a time. And now the rest of her adopted family was gone, as well. It did not matter that she was not even a blood relative of Grandpa Gen and Grandma Moto. Left on the doorstep of the tenement as a baby, she'd been raised by the elderly, childless couple, but the rest of the residents had done almost as much. She couldn't bear the thought of losing them, too.

As she walked listlessly down the street, Marin looked at the devastation around her. The mutual collapse had apparently been happening with increasing frequency. She could hear a low rumble off in the distance that suggested another rush of falling rubble had begun elsewhere in the city…perhaps more than one. Looking up, she could see two pillars of falling earth rushing down there on the horizon, beyond the buildings. There might be even more that she couldn't see.

Mutual collapse was the term scientists had adopted to describe what was happening, although they had a difficult time explaining it. The close proximity of the other world, Brigadoon, was causing instability, and the two worlds were exchanging matter and collapsing in on each other. The sky would open up at random intervals, and debris would come crashing down, or the land would break into pieces and fly upwards toward Brigadoon. The constant exchange was destructive for both worlds—Marin had seen the craters and mounds of rubble in Brigadoon, too.

She plodded on, her thoughts rambling aimlessly as much as her feet did. She had no real destination in mind, and she stared blankly into the gloomy grayness, her green eyes shadowed and unfocused. There was nowhere for her to go, really…after discovering the destroyed tenement building, she'd heard an evacuation announcement that had directed her to the junior high, but although she had seen familiar faces there, none of them were friendly. Too many of her old classmates blamed her for all that had happened, or simply didn't care. Not welcome at the shelter and having no home of her own anymore, there wasn't anywhere for her to go—that was why she had settled down to rest under the bridge in the first place.

Twilight seemed to be falling now, and the snow continued to fall, as well. Marin shivered, so numb with cold she barely felt it anymore, except as a dull, ever-present sensation at the back of her mind. Her rust-red hair hung in dirty tangles around her face, and she herself was covered in dirt and dust and icy snowflakes. Marin devoted little conscious thought to her discomfort, however, or to anything else, for that matter. She felt numb all over, except for a dull, gnawing ache that reminded her just how long it had been since she'd eaten anything. Not really thinking about it, she found her feet wandering down a side street in the general direction of a faint, golden-yellow light amidst the gray of dusk.

Marin stopped outside the building that shed the yellow glow. Sniffing the air, she peered inside and realized that it was a small bakery. It was not much of a bakery at the moment, however; two small, pitiful loaves of bread sat on a rack in front of the window, looking plain and lonely. At the counter, the baker argued vehemently with a potential customer. The man was desperate for food but had little money to buy the bread for his wife and family, and the baker refused to lower the price. Rationing had made it difficult for him to get the ingredients to make bread, and he couldn't afford to charge less, or he would starve, as well.

Marin barely heard the argument. Conscious thought faded even more, and the warm light of the bakery seemed to grow dim, the voices far off. The loaves of bread sat there, small but smelling so very good. Marin licked her lips and quietly stepped forward, reaching out for a plastic-wrapped loaf. She tucked it under the folds of her raggedy cloak, then turned, eyes still focused on nothing, and headed for the door.

A hand closed sharply on Marin's wrist, tightly enough to make her wince with pain. For a moment she panicked, thinking the crazed attacker from earlier had found her again…and then a hand reached out to grab the loaf of bread she had concealed, and she thought for a second that it was a thief as hungry as she was. But no, the hand placed the loaf back on the shelf. Marin looked up to see a familiar face—wavy pink hair cut to chin-length, maroon eyes, and a permanently sardonic expression, now scowling sternly. She struggled, suddenly indignant. "Let me go!"

The baker and his customer looked up, confused, as they watched the older girl drag the younger one roughly away by her arm. She stalked off down the street, her ever-present bokuto in one hand, the other clamped firmly on Marin's wrist.

Words spilled out of Marin's mouth, and she found herself trying to explain—possibly to herself as much as to the other girl. "Midori, it's not what you think! I was hungry, I was so starving, I had nowhere to go and I didn't know what to do and…"

Midori dragged Marin roughly behind a building and shoved her, so she stumbled and fell into a snowdrift. A booted foot planted itself on her back—not hard enough to really hurt, but it was definitely not a comfortable position. "What, so that makes it okay to steal?" The high school girl's voice was impossible to read; it sounded sarcastic and impassive as it always did. "Both of those men were starving too, in case you hadn't noticed. You think you're the only one? You think that makes it all okay?" Midori lifted her foot, reached down, and dragged Marin up by her arm.

Anger flared up suddenly, and Marin's weariness abated a little. "What do you know, Midori?! All I did, all I went through was for nothing, and now there's no one here! I'm alone and I'm tired, hungry, and scared! You don't know anything!" She began to beat her fists against Midori's chest. "So shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!" Her voice faded into ragged, angry sobs as she continued to beat a continuous staccato. Finally she slowed, exhausted and spent. She realized that Midori was not retaliating in any way at all, despite her roughness. Knowing the older girl's temper and her usual stubborn refusal to take that kind of attitude from anyone, that was rather surprising. Marin looked up at her and saw Midori standing stock still, eyes closed and her mouth set in a thin line, simply taking the abuse. She opened her eyes and looked down as the rain of blows slowed and stopped, and suddenly she smiled the sardonic smile Marin knew so well. "Well, it can't have been all _that_ bad, if you still have that much energy."

Marin blinked. "Midori-sempai…?"

Midori's smile softened, and she put her arms around Marin's shoulders. "Come on, I'll take you back to my house. Let's get you something to eat and some decent clothes. You've had a rough time of it, so many adventures…you even got to ride on Apollo, huh? Sorry, I hope I didn't hurt you much…I've been worried about you, kid. Anyway, come on. It's cold out here."

Marin choked back another sob, hugging Midori impulsively. After a moment she took a deep breath and tried to compose herself. She nodded quietly, standing up straight and following the older girl down the street. The anger had left her feeling drained, but it had taken some of the numbness with it. The possibility of a meal gave her strength, as well, and she hurried to match Midori's long strides. Midori slowed a little so Marin could keep up, and they walked in silence, the older girl warm in her long, gray skirt and sweater, with her wooden sword resting on her shoulder as it always did. Marin latched onto the familiarity of the image, the only thing she had seen since coming home that was the same as when she left.


	2. Chapter 2

**_Mutual Collapse_**  
_Chapter 2_

It was quiet at Midori's house, and warm. The place was very cozy and seemed quite safe, but as soon as they were inside, Midori looked the door securely behind them. "Make yourself at home," she told Marin. "You look freezing. Hold on a second…" She rummaged through a cupboard in the hall near the front door, pulling out a soft blanket. "Aha. Here, wrap yourself up in this. I'll get us some dinner, and then I think you need a bath."

Marin gratefully shed the dirty canvas and wrapped up in the blanket. As Midori cooked a simple supper, the younger girl told her something of her adventures in Brigadoon and Submaton Color. She found it difficult to speak of, however. "You should have seen it, Midori. It was so beautiful. But now…everything's gone wrong." She sighed. "I guess it couldn't last forever. I'm sorry I wasn't any use, though. Turns out it was all just a big mistake, and everything I did was for nothing."

Midori came out to join her at the table, setting bowls of miso soup and rice out for them. She poured hot tea into cups. "It wasn't for nothing. You tried, didn't you? That's all anyone can ask. The important thing now is to keep your strength up, so eat up, okay?" Marin nodded, hungrily eyeing the food. "Itadakimasu," she murmured before digging in with the chopsticks. She shoveled down the food hungrily, too starving to talk until every last bite was gone.

While they ate, Midori filled Marin in on some of the happenings since she'd left. "The mutual collapse has been happening more and more often. You've seen it. It's pure chance where it hits, and I'm just lucky my house is still standing. My parents went off to see what they could do; they're staying full time at the evacuation centers, cooking and taking care of the injured. The left me here to keep an eye on the house. There are a lot of people looting and stealing, now. You'd better stick with me until we find out what happened to your neighbors from the tenement; it's just not safe out there."

Marin paused from eating, taking a sip of the tea and savoring both the taste and the warmth that filled her. "Well, it's not like I've got anywhere else to go," she admitted. "But what about you, Midori? Should you really be walking around if it's so dangerous out…especially at night?"

Midori grinned. "You forget, no one messes with me and my bokuto." She waved a finger. "Nah, I'm all right. Don't worry about me. I go for walks because I'd go crazy if I just stayed locked in the house all day. The schools have all been closed, and there's nothing much to do but sit at home and read or listen to all the depressing news on the radio. Sometimes I see if I can be any help volunteering, but I don't stay out long. I usually bring back old clothes to mend for the children. In this weather they've got to stay warm, after all." She paused to eat a few bites.

Marin smiled softly. Midori came across as a very harsh, disinterested girl, but she seemed to have her gentler side, too. Even so, she could still sense the anger and frustration just below the surface. Midori obviously wanted to do more, and Marin couldn't blame her. It hurt her just to look around at all the devastation in the city.

Marin finished off the rest of her food and drained her tea. Midori took a little bit longer, then took the plates into the kitchen. "I'll do the dishes later. Right now I think it's time for a bath. No offense, but you're filthy." She wrinkled her nose, and Marin couldn't help but smile. Her head ached and she felt very tired now that her hunger pains were satisfied, but she really wanted to soak the chill out of her bones.

Marin helped Midori to fill up the makeshift bath outside, made from an old metal drum just big enough to comfortably stand in. The hot water wasn't running, so they had to fill the bath with water from the hose and then start a fire at the bottom, in a fire pit Midori had cleared for the purpose. It took some time, but finally it was somewhat warm. Heedless of the fact that she was outdoors, Marin dropped the blanket and stripped off the tattered remains of her leaf dress; there was no one around to see but Midori. She shivered in the biting cold, then hurriedly scrambled into the water. It felt scalding hot at first to her chilled skin, but gradually the warmth began to seep into her, and Marin felt her stiff limbs slowly relax. She sighed, leaning her arms on the edge of the metal drum; the sudden heat made her rather dizzy.

"Too hot?"

"No, it's just fine. Thank you, Midori."

She was silent for a while, head spinning with exhaustion and the steam from the bath. Little white tendrils curled and drifted away above her in the cold air. The snow fell silently; the only sounds were the crackling of the fire and Midori blowing on it through a straw to fan the flames. Her eyes drifted halfway shut, the warmth and quiet lulling her tired mind and body into a kind of doze.

_Marin!_

Marin's eyes blinked open, and she sucked in her breath. The sound had seemed very faint and far off, but urgent, as if someone were calling her from a long way away.

"What's the matter? Are you sure it's not too hot?"

"No, it's not that. It's just…I thought I heard someone calling my name."

"Hm?" Midori cocked her head to one side as Marin stood up in the water.

"Midori, I have to go right away!"

"Go? Go where? Marin, you're exhausted; you're not thinking straight. What do you mean?"

Marin placed her hands on the side of the drum and started to climb out, her voice urgent. "I don't know! But I…I have to…" She put one foot over the side, and suddenly her head spun. Her vision blurred, and she lost her balance, crashing to the deck.

"Marin!" Midori dropped the straw and hurried around to the other side of the bath. "Are you all right? The hot water must have made you dizzy…" She knelt down next to her young friend.

Marin struggled to her knees, reaching out with her hand and groping at the air. "Midori! Which direction are you in? Everything's dark!" Panic rose within her, her stomach churning and her throat tight. "What's happening, Midori?"

Midori grabbed her searching hands and held them tightly in her own, frowning worriedly. "What do you mean?"

"I can't see, Midori! I can't see anything! I'm…I'm blind!"

Midori let out a small gasp, blinking in surprise. She shook herself, forcing down the infectious panic that radiated from Marin. Helping the girl up, she reached out and grabbed a towel, wrapping it around her. "Come on, I'll help you inside. Just calm down. Shh." She put her arm around Marin's shaking shoulders, making soothing sounds. Marin was whimpering softly. Midori guided her into the guestroom, where she'd already laid out some bedding. She led Marin to the futon and made her sit down, then looked at her carefully, examining her eyes.

"Well Marin, I'm no doctor or anything…do you feel okay, aside from not being able to see? What happened to you when you got back?"

Marin tried to fight down the panic enough to answer. She gulped a few breaths of air. "Um…I had to get a ride to the tenement because we ended up a ways outside the city. I got there and searched, and then I went to the school…I left and found a bridge to sleep under…" She wracked her brains, trying to remember all the things that had happened in the terrible last twenty-four hours. "I—a woman attacked me. She's the one who tried to hurt me before. She—she said I killed her daughter. And then…why did she leave me alone? Oh, the mutual collapse. One started right above us, and we ran in different directions. That's how I lost her."

Midori frowned. "Did you get away from the collapse? Were you hurt?"

"I…think I hit my head…"

"Hmmm. That might be it, then. Like I said, though, I'm no doctor. I just know that sometimes concussions can make your vision go all funny, and you get dizzy…I think. Look, there's nothing we can do tonight—it's freezing and it's dark, and it'd be nuts to try to go find a doctor in the middle of the night. It's just not safe on the streets right now. We can go in the morning to see what's wrong, all right? I'm sure it'll all be fine." She hugged the whimpering girl around the shoulders. "Maybe a good night's sleep will help. When you wake up, your vision might be fine again."

Marin looked in the direction of her friend's voice, swallowing a soft sob. "You really think so?"

Midori patted her shoulder. "Could be. Look, if you've been hurt in any way, it's a good idea for you to get some rest. You've been through a lot, and some sleep might be all you need. So you just sit right here while I find you some of my old pajamas. I think I might have some old clothes and things that'll fit you…you're skinny as a stick, like I've always been, and my parents never throw anything out."

Midori got up, the sound of her voice moving as she talked. Marin could hear drawers rattling and scraping as she searched through the old clothes. She hugged her knees, feeling terrified and disoriented, but she focused on Midori's voice, grasping the sound and clinging to it in her mind.

After a few seconds, she could hear Midori's footsteps coming back to the futon. "Here you go. A bit worn, but clean and soft. Here, hold out your arms."

Midori helped Marin, who was still shaking in shock and worry, to put on the pajamas. She had to admit, she felt better once she was finally wearing real clothing for the first time in a long while. Once she was dressed, Midori helped her up and steered her to the bathroom, where she put toothpaste on a toothbrush and handed it to Marin. As she brushed her teeth, Midori brushed out her hair. "Wow, you have some serious tangles, Marin. I'm afraid you'll have to sleep on it wet, but I have plenty of blankets, so you'll be nice and warm."

Marin finished brushing, spit into the sink, and then groped for the cup of water Midori offered so she could rinse her mouth. She rinsed and spit again, then drank thirstily. Midori then put her hands on her shoulders and again steered her gently back to the guestroom. Marin sank wearily down onto the futon, still tense and shaking a little bit, and Midori covered her up in layers of blankets.

Marin lay there for a couple of seconds, her teeth chattering, and then sighed miserably as tears began to flow down her cheeks.

"Marin?" Midori sounded worried, and a little uncomfortable. Marin had only known her for a few months, but she could tell that the girl was not ordinarily a very emotional or demonstrative person. It was obvious that she was concerned and rather unnerved by all of this, but she truly _was_ worried about her young friend. She sighed, hugging Marin, who cried softly into her shoulder.

"Marin, it'll be okay. You'll see. Look, no matter what else has happened, you're still alive, right? You don't know where your friends are, but you don't know that they're dead, either. Tomorrow we might find them, and you might wake up feeling as good as new and able to see just fine. You've been through a lot, but this isn't like you. You're a stubbornly optimistic kid, and I know you're not going to let this get you down. You've got to get some rest, okay?" She smoothed Marin's hair back. "That's the best thing you can do right now, for yourself and for your friends. So just try, all right? I'll be just in the next room, I promise. If you wake up in the night and you need anything, all you have to do is call me. I'm a light sleeper—I'll hear you."

Marin threw her arms around the older girl and hugged her tightly. "Thanks, Midori. I'm so glad you found me. I'm sorry about all the trouble I've caused you."

Midori smiled, ruffled Marin's hair, and slowly stood up. "It's no big deal. Like I said, you can repay me by getting some sleep and taking care of yourself, all right?"

"Mm-hmm." Marin nodded, then wriggled down under the covers again. She heard the light click off as she pulled them up under her chin. "Good night, Midori."

"Good night, Marin. Sweet dreams."

Midori's footsteps padded off down the hall, and Marin was left alone. It was somehow less scary now…she was quite used to lying awake in the dark at night, so it wasn't so hard to pretend that nothing had happened and she could see just fine. She concentrated instead on the sounds around her. She could hear Midori in the next room, getting ready for bed…the sound of the water running as she brushed her teeth, and the rummaging through dresser drawers. After a while the sounds stopped; Midori had gone to bed. The windows and doors were closed tightly and locked, but outside Marin could hear the faint rustle of the wind. She wondered if it were still snowing. She pressed her face into the pillow, smelling the bedding. Each person's house always had a distinctive smell. This one smelled of…inexpensive laundry detergent, sheets well washed…the clean wooden smell of the floors, the slightly musty smell of the mats…the fading scent of their simple dinner. There was a little of Midori's own smell here, too. Marin found it comforting. She nestled into the soft bedding, pulling the covers up a little more.

_I hope Midori's right, and when I wake up everything will be fine. I wonder how Melan is doing…_ She blinked; she'd forgotten about that voice she'd heard earlier. It had sounded almost like Melan. Had he called her somehow? A faint worry niggled at her; she hoped he wasn't in trouble. Of course, it was a rare kind of trouble Melan couldn't get out of. Marin smiled faintly to herself. She always wanted to help him, but there was little she could do. Melan Blue was a warrior who was there to protect her, not the other way around. Still, she couldn't help worrying.

Despite all the emotions swirling in her head, Marin felt her thoughts grow fuzzy. She yawned widely. She was so very exhausted, even all the worries and conflicting emotions from this terrible day couldn't keep her awake for long. Finally she drifted off, curled up in the blessed, comforting warmth of her bedding, and dreamed of the sun-filled days in Submaton Color.


End file.
